As he announced a series of dynamic plans for the coming year, the National
Theatre's artistic director, Nicholas Hytner, seemed remarkably calm, says Dominic
Cavendish.

The National Theatre looks like a building site at present. A new temporary, 225-seat venue, The Shed, is fast approaching completion in the courtyard outside the main entrances. And the huge £70 million project called NT Future – a transformation that will replace the Cottesloe with the superior “Dorfman” theatre as the third space from 2014, and also create an education resource, the Clore Learning Centre – is noisily taking shape at the back of the building.

In the foyer outside the stalls entrance to the Olivier, though, you very much got the feeling of business as usual, as Nicholas Hytner took to a lectern to announce plans for 2013, the theatre’s 50th anniversary year.

The nature of the one-off celebration that will unfold in October – featuring famous alumni and revisiting the theatre’s greatest triumphs – remains sketchy (do send in emailed suggestions, Hytner quipped) but the bulk of this year's programme has been fleshed out in solid detail, with a marked expansion of the repertoire thanks to The Shed’s pop-up dynamic being a major feature.

In terms of the main stages, the highlights are as follows. In the Olivier, Hytner directing Othello in a production starring Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear (opens April 23); a revival of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, directed by Rufus Norris, opening in June; a fresh look at Marlowe’s Edward II, directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins; and the end-of-year family show will be Erich Kastner’s children’s classic Emil and the Detectives, as adapted by Carl Miller, bravely featuring, we were told, a children-led company. A date has also finally been set, Hytner announced, for Sam Mendes’ long-mooted production of King Lear starring Simon Russell Beale, which will be unveiled next January.

Over in the Lyttelton space, Howard Davies continues his rewarding fascination with the work of Maxim Gorky by presenting Children of the Sun (opening April 16) and up-and-coming director Simon Godwin makes his NT debut with Eugene O’Neill’s epic, experimental drama Strange Interlude.

Making a welcome return to the building, former NT director Richard Eyre will direct a lesser-known (and mercifully atypical, Hytner suggested) Pirandello play, Liola, which will be good to go in August, another cheap-to-sample offering in the £12 Travelex season.

A new musical from Tori Amos – The Light Princess – is finally emerging from its long development period in October, swiftly followed by the latest venture from Melly Still, Georg Kaiser’s From Morning to Midnight in a new version by playwright/screenwriter of the moment Dennis Kelly.

There’s almost too much to catch the eye in the programme for The Shed – not to be confused, incidentally, with that fabulous, small-scale arts centre in Yorkshire – to digest at one sitting. But it’s gratifying to see some of the most exciting work caught on the Edinburgh Fringe making its way to the South Bank – notably Rob Drummond’s subtly mind-blowing magic-act stunt-dramaBullet Catchand New York’s The TEAM giving the London premiere ofMission Drift.

Hotly anticipated, too, in this youth-driven playpen are a new one from Debbie Tucker Green (Nut) and a work by Tim Price about the Occupy Movement.

Good common sense as well as a rip-up-the-rule book ethos is also prevailing – instead of having to queue for day seats, time-pressed theatregoers will be able to book online or by phone from midday, when those seats are released.

What else to add besides the fact that for a man who’d be forgiven for blowing his own trumpet – some 35 per cent of all theatre attendances in London last year were for National shows and by the spring an unprecedented four NT shows will be playing in the West End – Hytner cut a typically quiet, thoughtful, modestly unassuming figure as he expounded on the plans?

It’s frankly astounding that the National’s overall audience figures – thanks to NT Live – reached 3.2 million worldwide last year. By the time Sir Nick has overseen the completion of NT Future, at which point he confirmed that he would bow out (“It will be time") those figures may well be eclipsed.

The Cottesloe will finally close its doors in four weeks' time – but there’s no time for weeping. At the NT under Hytner, when one door closes, half a dozen seem to open.